The classic volume by the distinguished modern poet, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, showcases an esteemed artist's technical mastery, her warm humanity, and her compassionate and illuminating response to a complex world.
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"Miss Brooks has a very fine talent...a faculty which is becoming rare in contemporary poetry: an interest not merely in her own responses, but in other people as well." -- Paul Engle --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Annie Allen and one of the most celebrated African American poets. She was Poet Laureate for the state of Illinois, a National Women's Hall of Fame inductee, and a recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts. She received fifty honorary degrees. Her other books include a Street in Bronzeville, In the Mecca, The Bean Eaters, and Maud Martha.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Five stars! If I had to choose the ten greatest books of the twentieth century, Brooks' Selected Poems would have to be one of them. Her voice is entirely original - no one who came before Brooks or follows her writes quite like her. Brooks' work is distinguished by so many wonderful qualities - she may have the best ear of any living American poet. Her sense of the musicality of language rivals that of Yeats and Dylan Thomas (as in, say, "A Sunset of the City," "We Real Cool," "Big Bessie throws her son into the street, and her great long poem, "Riot."). I once heard Gwendolyn Brooks read over twenty years ago when I was in college, and I still haven't forgotten the sound of her voice, and with it the dawn of my understanding that poetry is half-music, half-language. Brooks is also capable of that kind of clarity and brilliance of imagery that you find in the best William Carlos Williams Poems. (Read, for example, "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till" or "My Little `Bout Town Gal"). What has always been most special about her work for me, however, is the way Brooks captures nuances of feeling, multi-layers of emotion, in a few phrases, as in her very contemporary poem about abortion, "the mother," or her love poem, "A Lovely Love." The only other poet I know of who does this so well is Emily Dickinson.
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By Ken Mitchell
Format:Paperback
In 1984, I had the honor to spend a day with Miss Brooks, and to hear her do a reading of many of the poems in this book. I wish that all of you could have heard that reading, her work is meant to be read aloud. That's what I would advise you to do, buy this book, and when you get it, read the poems aloud. Play with the flow and the cadence of the words. Miss Brooks is a national treasure, and her words speak to us all.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful collection of poems, Brooks's best. I understand why Langston Hughes has received so much attention over the last several decades--his first-person commentary and description of Black life in the twentieth century is valuable and enlightening--but Brooks, at her best (i.e., in this book), is a better poet than Hughes was at his best, and I'm a little miffed that she hasn't received more credit by the general public than she has. It is just that this volume won the Pulizter Prize, and it will certainly be around for some time.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the greatest American poets
Brooks is a poet whose best known poems actually conceal her greatness from readers of poetry. To know Brooks by "We Real Cool" is just like knowing Williams by the wheelbarrow... Read more
Published on May 21, 2008 by Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Collection of a Modern Social Poet
Various editions of "Selected Poems" by the late Gwendolyn Brooks are floating around, most of which only have differences in layout or binding. Read more
Published on May 7, 2006 by A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com
1.0 out of 5 stars
Likes Gwendolyn Brooks but this book didn't do it for me
I like Gwendolyn Brooks. But I like poetry that tells a story more and this book didn't have much of it. Read more
Published on January 3, 2004 by Shamontiel L. Vaughn
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Comments
This is a wonderful book for both children and adults. If you like poems, then you should definetly read this book.
Published on April 23, 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
We's Not So Cool
It's a shame some people sit in their Wall Street Towers and, not having any apparent experience with the real world, judge harshly those who not only live in it, but interpret it... Read more
Published on January 18, 2000 by mkh
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's not wonder no living poet has been more honored
Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the masters of poetry. she is probably the greatest living poet, one of the best modern poets, and one of the better poets of all time. Read more
Published on January 18, 2000 by adead_poet@hotmail.com
1.0 out of 5 stars
Buy a collection of Shakespeare sonnets.
Ms. Brooks epitomizes what is wrong with modern poetry. Poems like "We Real Cool" show an attempt at profundity but fall so far from the mark as to be laughable. Read more
Published on December 23, 1999 by TW
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